Darbhanga airport adds daily flight to Ahmedabad

Patna: Budget carrier SpiceJet flagged off its maiden daily flight to Ahmedabad on Monday from Darbhanga airport under the Centre’s RCS-Udan (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) scheme.
The direct flight landed at 1.20pm and departed for Ahmedabad at 1.55pm. The airline will operate Boeing 737-700 aircraft between Darbhanga and Ahmedabad. The airline staff welcomed the passengers at the airport, but the ceremonial water salute could not be given to the maiden flight when it landed due to technical reasons.
“Had it not been for the personal interest and push by CM Nitish Kumar, Mithila’s aspirations of air connectivity with rest of the world would have remained a dream.Today, so heartening to see Darbhanga Airport bustling with activities, and adding new feathers (sic),” JD(U) general secretary and MLC Sanjay Kumar Jha tweeted on Monday.
The number of flights at Darbhanga airport has now increased to four. Darbhanga airport was already operating three flights each on Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru routes. Two more flights each to Pune and Hyderabad will start from January 18.
The Hyderabad- Darbhanga- Hyderabad (SG- 113/ 116) flight would land here at 9.40 am and leave for Hyderabad at 4.40 pm. The flight Darbhanga-Pune-Darbhanga (SG- 114/ 115) will take off for Pune at 10.20 am and return at 4 pm.
The Airports Authority of India has floated a bid for installation of approach lights to address the poor visibility problem at Darbhanga airport. Due to bad weather in December and January, the flight operations got disrupted inconveniencing passengers.
Darbhanga airport director Biplab Kumar Mondal said approach lights up to 300m would be installed along the runway for aircraft to operate even in foggy conditions. “The bidding has been initiated, and the installation work will commence soon,” he said.
Altogether 56,698 passengers have travelled on 328 incoming and outgoing flights operated by the SpiceJet since November 8. Commercial flight operations from Darbhanga airport is a boon for 22 districts of North Bihar, including Muzaffarpur, Madhubani, Samastipur, Sitamarhi, Champaran, Saharsa and Purnia among others and also to bordering Nepal.